In prairie voles, microinjections of OXT in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus decreased anxiety-like behaviors and reduced circulating levels of corticosterone in female voles recovering alone from an immobilization stress task; while injections of an OXT receptor antagonist increased anxiety-like behaviors and elevated circulating levels of corticosterone in female voles recovering with a male partner (Smith and Wang, 2014). This evidence concerns the gene OXT and Anxiety.